Metrics FYI: Estimated Reach, Streaming Reactions and Graph API

Update on June 9, 2017: We identified a logging issue affecting the Graph API and metrics for the Like and Share buttons. This caused a discrepancy between data shown on the buttons and seen in mobile search query results. We are fixing this today to ensure consistent reporting between the Graph API, Like / Share buttons, and mobile search query results. Going forward, some high traffic publishers will see an increase in their engagement metrics. This fix applies to new URLs that are shared to Facebook and will not change metrics shared before June 9, 2017.

Update on December 16, 2016: We’ve uncovered an issue for a small group of Instant Articles publishers that impacts reporting in comScore. comScore alerted us to the issue, and we’ve since identified this is a result of a recent Facebook update that impacted publishers using our legacy comScore integration who support HTTPS on their websites. This caused an underreporting of iPhone traffic from Facebook in comScore products between Sep 20 to Nov 30, 2016. iPad and Android traffic were not affected. We have fixed the issue and are working with comScore to produce updated estimates for the relevant time periods for the small group of partners affected. We have reached out to affected publishers.

Originally published on December 9, 2016:

We know how important it is to be open about meaningful updates we make to our metrics, so we’ve created this channel for regular information on metrics enhancements. This series will be similar to our News Feed FYI series.

To help advertisers get a better view of the number of people they can expect to reach with ads, this week we are updating how we calculate the numbers that appear in our estimated reach tool — found when creating an ad. When an advertiser begins creating a campaign, the tool provides them with an estimate of both the potential overall reach and the estimated daily reach of their ad campaign. Note that this tool does not reflect reach for campaigns that have already run, nor does it affect any other reach metrics.

We’re improving our methodology for sampling and extrapolating potential audience sizes. This will help to provide a more accurate estimate for a given target audience and to better account for audiences across multiple platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network). In most cases, advertisers should expect to see less than a 10% change (increase or decrease) in the audience sizes shown in the tool.

For Live videos, we introduced streaming reactions. Live video posts can have multiple reactions per person, since people can react at any moment of the live broadcast.

In Page Insights in the column for “Reactions on Post,” however, we show only one reaction per unique user. We misallocated the extra reactions per user that happened during the live broadcast to the “Reactions from Shares of Post” section, instead of counting them in the “Reactions on Post” section, so we’re making a change to correct it. Note that total counts were and are correct; some of them were just captured in the wrong reporting column when broken out.

The fix for this issue will apply to newly created Live videos, starting mid-December. It will increase “Reactions on Post” by 500% on average and will decrease them on “Reactions from Shares of Post” by 25% on average (actual impact to specific videos may vary).

Like, Share Buttons and Mobile Search Discrepancy

We have identified a discrepancy between the counts for the Like and Share Buttons via our Graph API and the counts when you enter a URL into the search bar in the Facebook mobile app (see screenshot below).

To clarify, our Like and Share button metrics pull:

The number of likes of a URL off Facebook

The number of shares of a URL off Facebook (this includes copy/pasting a link back to Facebook)

The number of likes and comments on stories on Facebook about a URL

We have found that there may be a difference between what these metrics count and what the mobile search query counts. We are looking into why inputting the URL as a search query in Facebook’s mobile app might have corresponding numbers that can be higher or lower in certain cases. We are working to resolve this issue so that the Like and Share button metrics and our mobile search query metrics match up, and we will notify partners as soon as we have an update.

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